


Welcome Home

by adadshi



Series: Adashi Month 2019 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adashi Month 2019, Alternate Universe, During Canon, Everyone Needs A Hug, Galaxy Garrison, M/M, Reunions, Season/Series 06, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 19:03:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19910674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adadshi/pseuds/adadshi
Summary: When team Voltron finally make it to Earth, Shiro can't help but look for a certain someone in the crowd of people who welcome them. Although Adam told him he wouldn't wait for him, he gets his hopes up and his heart broken by the grim fate his fiancé likely faced.(Adashi Month prompt: Reunion)





	Welcome Home

Shiro’s return to Earth doesn’t go quite as he expected. It’s refreshing to watch the paladins reunite with their families, even if his own family isn’t here. Lance’s mother thanks him profusely for keeping Lance safe and Pidge’s mother gives him a big hug, something he desperately needs and melts right into. He hasn’t been hugged in a long time. He thinks it’s great to finally meet the people he’d heard so much about but there’s a face missing in the crowd. Keith seems to pick up on how his eyes scan the crowds in the distance and he pieces things together.

“Want to go look for him?” He asks. Shiro shakes his head and smiles through his disappointment.

“It’s alright.” He says, not entirely meaning it.

_ Adam won’t be here _ , Shiro thinks as they walk through the front doors of the Galaxy Garrison,  _ I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up _ . 

It’s strange to be back at the Garrison, a place where he’d spent so many years of his life. He joined as a cadet at fifteen years old, graduated at nineteen, took a year to work on recruiting new cadets, and then started teaching aviation. Shiro was twenty-three when he left Earth to journey to Kerberos, a decision he would later regret. Now he is twenty-seven and can’t help but to dwell on all he could’ve done if he hadn’t gone to Kerberos. Things would be very different but ultimately he doesn’t regret the choice. If he hadn’t been abducted by the Galra, Princess Allura and Coran would have never woken from their 10,000-year long sleep and Voltron would’ve never fought back against the Galra Empire. The universe would be a much darker place. Even as he tells himself this, Shiro is ashamed by how he imagines what his life would be like if he’d stayed on Earth. 

He comes to a sudden stop when he notices a memorial where there was once a study space. The walls bend into a curve and hundreds of small plaques decorate it. Above the memorial space is a symbol that makes Shiro’s stomach drop. A white star in the middle of an orange, six-sided polygon. The symbol is usually seen on the gravestones of dead Garrison soldiers. Shiro gapes at the hundreds of plaques in horror. How many people have been killed in the past four years?

He gets closer and reads the plaques. He recognises many of the names and realises that many of them were cadets that he’d taught. Victoria Crawford, David Anev- those two were always passing notes during the theory periods of aviation class. Shiro chuckles at the memory and wipes a tear from his eye. Then there’s Harry Cantrelle who stayed with Tony Lopez in the dorm opposite from his when they were cadets. Their plaques are side by side on the wall. He recognises the faces of the pilots in Adam’s squadron and he lets out a shuddery, anxious breath and tears his eyes away before he could be confronted by anything more heartbreaking. Although he is too overwhelmed by sadness and grief to read all the names, Shiro walks the entire length of the memorial and gazes at the photographed faces staring back at him. It’s morbid to look into their eyes and know that these people are gone. It’s even more morbid to wonder if his Adam is gone, too.

He tears himself away from the memorial before he can cry anymore and realises that the paladins and their families are waiting for him. Krolia puts a strong hand on his shoulder and squeezes. It’s not uncommon for Blades to set out on missions and never return from them so she must understand his pain. He tries to give her a smile but she shakes her head.

“There’s no shame in sorrow.” She says before leading their group down the hall again. Everyone follows her but Shiro stays a moment longer to gaze at the memorial before rejoining his friends. 

The next few hours of meetings and discussions and tours are incredibly uncomfortable for Shiro. All he wants to do is go to his old apartment, take a long shower and have a nap but he has to shake hands and share strategies and even explain his time in Galra captivity a few times to curious Garrison staff. So many questions are asked and he’s expected to know the answers. Luckily Allura steps in a few times to explain things and Hunk even encourages him to sit down and have a snack break with him.

“I always carry emergency chocolates with me.” He explains as he digs through a pocket in his suit before pulling out a small, see-through bag with small chunks of chocolate inside. Shiro takes a few pieces and the two of them eat in silence. He’s grateful for the small break as it distracts him from the anxiety welling in his stomach. He feels his mind drifting towards the memorial every now and then but the sweetness of the chocolate, a treat he hadn’t eaten in four years, lifts his spirits and gives him enough energy to go back to the meeting. 

Thankfully the meeting disperses only a few hours later and each paladin is shown to a room to stay in. Shiro is pleased when he’s given a key to his old apartment.

_ It’s still mine _ , he thinks as he strolls to the block of teacher apartments,  _ It’s still my safe space _ . 

He hopes not too much has changed since he left. He liked to keep things neat and tidy so it was only natural that he began to expect things in a certain order and position. Medication in rows of three at the sink, mugs at one side of the overhead kitchen cabinet and glasses at the other, bed made perfectly each morning. He never adapted to the disorder and chaos of life in his dingy Galra gladiator cell and barely managed to get comfortable in his room on the Castle of Lions. The one place he felt safe and stressless was in the cockpit of the Black lion. Now she’s Keith’s paladin, her comfort can no longer reach him.

Memories flood back to Shiro the moment he enters the apartment. After all this time, the air still carries the scent of fabric softener. He lets the door close behind him as he shuts his eyes and inhales. This is the smell of home. 

When he opens his eyes, he stretches his arms high above his head and then begins to take off his paladin armour. As each piece comes off, he feels himself relax more and more. He looks around the apartment and smiles when he sees that his trophies are still shining in the display cabinet along with the large photograph of him and Adam after they came home from their first expedition to Earth’s moon together. The memory initially warms Shiro but then he realises that Adam won’t be here for him to greet.

_ Don’t expect me to be here when you get back _ . 

But as he surveys the apartment closer, he notices things that are out of place. There’s a black teacup on the coffee table with a biscuit accompanying it on the saucer. Looking closer, Shiro sees that someone has taken a few tiny nibbles of it. Someone has been here, maybe they’ve put homeless civilians here. Shiro suddenly regrets beginning to undress. 

A trail of clothes catches his attention. A pair of white socks at the coffee table, then grey sweatpants by the kitchen island, and then a t-shirt and a pair of crutches by the bedroom door which has been left slightly ajar. Shiro doesn’t want to get his hopes up about Adam again but he can’t think of any other explanation for what he’s found. Slowly, he pushes the bedroom door open and steps inside.

The homely smell is even stronger in here. It doesn’t feel too long ago since Shiro slept here every night, but it also feels like a hundred years ago. Underneath the white duvet, there’s a lump. A lump that could be anything but Shiro’s heart tells him that it’s his Adam. He steps forward, purposely stepping on the spots of flooring he knows will creak as a way to announce his presence, and then sits down on the side of the bed. His heart in his mouth, he pulls back the duvet.

He is met with the face of an angel. A scarred, teary angel but a man so handsome and brilliant that Shiro starts to cry. Adam stares up at him with his big, dark eyes and smiles crookedly.

“It’s you.” He exhales, and Shiro nods.

“It’s me.” He says, “I’m home.” 

Adam sits up very slowly and Shiro takes his appearance in further. Adam doesn’t look healthy. His ribs are too prominent and his skin doesn’t glow as heavenly as he remembers it to have. But Shiro pulls himself up onto their bed with his back against the headboard and Adam sits between his legs, hooking his arms around his neck.

“Takashi, I- I’m sorry. Didn’t mean what I said. I waited. I waited, see?” Shiro can’t help but think he sounds slightly hysterical as he weeps into his neck. He pulls Adam closer to him.

“Don’t apologise. Can I kiss you? Please, just your cheek, Adam.” 

Adam shakes his head and wipes at his eyes, “Not now, I’m so disgusting. You deserve better.”

“ _ I _ deserve better?” Shiro splutters before motioning to his scar and missing arm, “Look at me, it’s  _ you  _ who deserves better.”

Adam looks up at him and Shiro notices that not only are the eyelashes and eyebrow from the right side of his face gone but so is his right ear. 

“Not as handsome as we used to be, huh?” He tries to laugh but it comes out as a wail. Shiro doesn’t mind the snot that gets on his undersuit. 

“I’m so glad you’re here. I saw the memorial and I was terrified that you’d died.” He confessed. Adam shrugs but it could also be his shoulders shaking from his crying. 

“Only survivor of first wave of Galra invasion. Left a mess, though. Hardly ever make it out of this bed.” 

Shiro understands. Injury and trauma can ruin people, he knows this first hand. 

“Stay around this time, huh?” Adam says, voice stronger now. He presses his cheek to Shiro’s, his lips almost touching his skin, “Stay around and I’ll support you always.”

Shiro can’t make any promises, he knows this, but he can’t say no to Adam, especially when he’s this fragile. So he nods and relaxes into the pillows, the pillows that are exactly right and perfect. Adam pulls the duvet around them and shuts his eyes. 

“Welcome home.” He whispers just as Shiro’s vision becomes blurry and he drifts off into his first peaceful sleep in four years. 

**Author's Note:**

> A little late with this one and not entirely pleased with it. One of the things I love about the Adashi Month challenge is that I'm faced with a deadline and I'm forced to think and write quickly. I start with a general plan but I mostly write everything by the seat of my pants. In this fic, Adam is traumatised from his battle with the Galra and overwhelmed by having Shiro return to him. I regret not exploring Adam's health more and feel as if I've done an insufficient job of writing him, especially when this version of him is so physically and mentally fragile and hurt from battle, which is something that I believe should never be brushed over in fiction or real life. But this writing challenge forces a strict deadline on me to create a piece of writing that I'm satisfied with. This time I failed but I can use this piece as a learning experience. Sorry, I got a little bit chatty here!


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